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DALLAS — In recent years, media days served as an annual meeting of the Big 12 Quarterback Club.

The club included Heisman Trophy winners, record-setters and first-round draft picks, all of whom helped burnish the Big 12’s reputation as an air-it-out league. But it was a much smaller group that convened this week at the Dallas Omni Hotel, where the top Heisman contender was a running back and only two quarterbacks represented their respective schools.

It was a sign of the times, perhaps, that Texas — a team seemingly immersed in perpetual quarterback controversy since Colt McCoy departed in 2008 — now has one of the Big 12’s most experienced passers in junior David Ash.

“When I came in, there was (Brandon) Weeden and Landry (Jones), A&M’s quarterback, (Ryan) Tannehill,” Ash said Tuesday. “(Seth) Doege was still at Tech, and RGIII was at Baylor. There were a bunch of good quarterbacks who were all older than me, juniors and seniors. Now most of those are gone, and it’s like I’m the old guy.

“Football, like anything else, goes in cycles, and Texas’ cycle is kind of coming around.”

Several Big 12 teams could have something to say about that, even if they don’t have a designated starting quarterback. That includes the league’s preseason favorite, Oklahoma State, which used three starting quarterbacks last year and returns two in Clint Chelf and J.W. Walsh.

As the Cowboys and other teams have demonstrated, establishing a system can be more important than establishing a quarterback. In places where the coaches and the offenses are entrenched, uncertainty under center isn’t an automatic reason for regression.

“In these offenses, it seems like the next guy plugged in has done a great job,” TCU coach Gary Patterson said. “Just look at Oklahoma State. They play three of them, and they all did a great job.”

That’s how a team like Baylor can lose a Heisman winner in Robert Griffin, set single-season passing records last year with Nick Florence and expect to be even better this year with junior Bryce Petty.

“A reasonable expectation, the first thing that popped into my mind, is (to) break every Baylor record offensively, which is what we expect him to do and what he plans to do,” coach Art Briles said.

In some places, quarterback battles involve familiar names. That’s the case at TCU, where Casey Pachall is fighting to regain his starting job after leaving the team last year to address substance-abuse issues. It’s also true at Oklahoma, where Wichita native Blake Bell is looking to prove he’s more than just a short-yardage threat in the Sooners’ Belldozer package.

“We have a history going on 15 years of having quarterbacks that are really excellent throwers, and Blake fits that mold,” said OU coach Bob Stoops, who has yet to select a starter among Bell, Kendal Thompson and Trevor Knight. “We would never recruit a guy that we didn’t feel would be a great passer.

“He works hard at it. He throws a great deep ball. So to go along with his big, physical presence and ability to run it, we’re excited about the way he throws it, too.”

No team has a bigger void to fill than Kansas State, where sophomore Daniel Sams and junior college transfer Jake Waters are competing to replace Heisman runner-up Collin Klein. But inexperience doesn’t have to be a hindrance, as illustrated by Texas A&M’s Johnny Manziel, the freshman who edged Klein in Heisman balloting.

“Young guys have come into our program and come into other programs and (in) their first year have done extremely well,” K-State coach Bill Snyder said. “Some do, some don’t. You’ve got a young guy down here in College Station that came on the scene, and nobody had a clue that he was going to get himself on the field, and ended up winning a Heisman.”

Still, there is value in knowing who your quarterback will be. That’s the hope at Kansas, anyway, where the Jayhawks are banking on Brigham Young transfer Jake Heaps to help them close the gap with the rest of the Big 12.

“There are a lot of great quarterbacks in this league,” Heaps said. “At the end of this year, it’s not going to be, ‘Well, there’s a drop-off in quarterback play.’ It’s just guys going through a lot of transition.

“But that also means there’s a great opportunity for this conference to be wide open, and that’s a great thing for us.”